


A Tragedy that was Foretold

by Silverhaunter



Category: Batman (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Immortality, Red Hood: Outlaw, Villain! Jason, Villain!Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-02
Updated: 2018-09-02
Packaged: 2019-07-06 00:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15875016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverhaunter/pseuds/Silverhaunter
Summary: Jason Todd is a curse upon the world, presumably destined to die, return and rid the world of criminals, over and over again.Rinse and Repeat.Getting shot because Batman rips the Bat-symbol from his chest, and lets the whole word (most of which is out to kill him) know he's not armored is no exception.





	A Tragedy that was Foretold

**Author's Note:**

> Jason's second costume mixes his newest Red Hood: Outlaw costume with his Arkham Knight Red Hood costume (the grey one) and his hair from Hush, which is the hair with the white tuft, because I love the white tuft. 
> 
> This takes place during the comic: Red Hood and the Outlaws (2014): #25  
> It's sort of an alternate ending.  
> DC killed Jason's reputation, so I did the same, but actually murdered him in the process.

Jason’s body is alight with energy, his gun feels warm  in his hand, even though he knows it’s long gone cold. He laughs, but only because of the insanity of the situation he’s put himself in. He soars across rooftops, thinking about the memory of the heat of blood running over his hands as he cuts the heads off of drug-dealers, stuffs them in a bag. Somehow, it’s tragic. He’d come so unfortunately far, and to regress back to who The Joker, who Talia Al-Ghul turned him into? It’s laughable. The laughter, sick and self-loathing bubbles up from his chest as he feels his body hurl forward, landing neatly on the next rooftop. He doesn’t regret killing Penguin, or the spray of blood across his helmet, and keeps running even as he hears the flutter of a cape distantly following him. He scans the rooftops, using one of his guns to carefully shoot three snipers from Penguin’s angry, captain-less army who had their sights trained on him. He doesn’t stop to do it, but the dark knight only gets closer.

                Jason easily dodges a swipe of a bat-a-rang to his left, and calls back, “Not gonna let you kill me a second time, now am I?”

                He remembers dying, lying face-down in a puddle of his own blood, and waking up not long after, alive.

                 Bruce catches up with Jason, as the latter spins around, and a kick connects with his helmet.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you hit _The Joker_ that hard, and you _hate_ him!”

The helmet shatters, he should’ve worn his thicker one, but he didn’t really expect to need it, and he’s wearing armor that’s far too light than what he should’ve chosen. Jason dodges the next blow, but Bruce grabs him by the shirt, ripping the bat symbol from his chest, leaving him wide open. Bruce yanks Jason by the hair and pulls him to the ground, dragging him across the roof. Bruce yanks him to his feet and faces him, about to propel them across the rooftop when a shot rings out in the unusually silent night.

                A bullet slides through Jason’s chest, not quite piercing his heart and blood sprays across his face, through where the bat symbol was meant to protect him.

 _A sniper- but he’d- that means-_ His eyes lock with the sniper’s, on the roof behind Bruce.

                Jason falls backward on the ground, his eyes wide in surprise.

                Bruce doesn’t move, just sort of watches in shock as Jason dies, head rolling to the side.

                “Red Hood has been shot.” Bruce shouts at the comm.

                “Is he alive?” Comes Nightwing’s response.

                “No.”

               

 

 

_Red Hood, Artemis, and Bizarro (Outlaws) Dead?_

_By: Vickie Vale_

_Red Hood, after killing Oswald Cobblepot was announced dead late this evening, after being shot through the chest by an unknown gunman. Artemis and Bizarro, members of a team nicknamed “The Outlaws” consisting of the three were also presumed dead after an explosion that destroyed their base of operations._

 

It’s only two months later that a newcomer appears, brandishing a costume not unlike Jason’s, mostly grey, with a hooded figure as his symbol, and a literal red hood and red helmet. He’s as broad-shouldered and tall as Jason was when he first appeared, with thick legs, an angry posture, and an arsenal of lethal weapons.

                He calls himself The Red Hood.

                The first time he picks a fight with Batman he shoots him in the junction of his pads, and he’s the first sniper to draw blood from him in a long time.

                The Red Hood waves at him, before leaping seamlessly from the roof.

 

                Nightwing says that it can’t be him.

 

**_It is._ **

 

                He shoots Dick in the right shoulder, _so as to not pierce an artery,_ and lifts up the upper half of his helmet with a, “aww, miss me?”

He can’t see his eyes, what with the black lenses and lower face mask, but can see the white tuft of hair from overexposure to the Lazarus Pits, and knows that it’s him.

                “You know, I thought I might’ve become a better person,” Jason presses his heel into Dick’s wounded shoulder, “But, then I said, nah, I can never be who he wants me to be, so here we are, again. Opposite sides. I kill people who deserve it, you try to catch me, I shoot you because you deserve it, rinse and repeat.” Jason tilts his head, “This time, though, it’s not really about revenge or anything, it’s just that crime was way more controlled back when I did things my way, and being that the whole world thinks Jason Todd is dead…You see what I mean?”

                Dick is too busy trying to remove Jason’s boot from his shoulder to answer the question, so Jason answers it for him: “No, of course you don’t. How could you? You know, I thought a lot about how I got replaced back then, but I replaced you first, so why didn’t you go mad? Huh?” Jason has an easy tone, low and smooth, but it becomes a growl when he says, “Maybe it’s just cause you quit of your own accord, instead of, you know, dying.”

                Jason eases the pressure of off Dick’s wound, and leans down cautiously to the side of him, “I’ve died plenty. You never forget what it’s like to die. I could kill you, y’know. Just,” Jason pulls back the hammer on his gun and makes a sound with his mouth, “Pchow. You’d be dead. It’s kinda interesting, if you think about it? The weight a trigger actually takes to pull, other than you know, six or seven pounds.”

                Jason sighs, and holsters his gun, “Well, it was fun talking at you, but, I’m gonna run, you know, before you call Bruce on me.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> That's it. That's all I had energy to write.


End file.
